Erin woke in a field. The field consisted of dead grass, and shriveled shrubs, but Erin thought it could still loosely be called a field. As he shook the grogginess out of his head, Erin noted multiple popups including the one he had seen earlier, still waiting to be acknowledged.
Erin tentatively opened the description page for the Divinity skill.
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Divinity: holds the power of a corporeal god. As skill level increases, amount of divine energy, and control over this energy also increase.
Warning: This is a forbidden skill. System administrator has been notified.
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Unsure what to think of the warning, Erin opened the description for Divine Body.
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Divine Body: This entity is a divine being given corporeal form. At current divinity level, the primary noticeable trait is immortality against aging. Further benefits of Divine Body may be unlocked as Divinity increases.
Warning: Divinity skill is forbidden without god level clearance. System administrator has been notified.
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Erin dismissed the window, and shrugged. Standing, he scanned the horizon, and began walking toward what seemed to be a small town in the distance. “Well, not much I can do about it. Best case scenario, Almera is the system admin, and she won’t care. Let’s hope for that.” Erin muttered to himself as he walked. It took him over two hours before he finally reached the town. Erin had never walked for so long, and he was unsurprised when
Erin noted other things in his travels. He occasionally passed by farms, whose primary crops seemed to be cactus. There were people pulping the cactus, baking it, he even saw a woman extracting fibers from cactus that she then spun into cloth. None of these workers acknowledged him in any way besides glancing up to see who was passing by, then returning their attention to their work. Erin could see the lines of stress and hardship that had settled into the faces of the farmer-folk that he passed. There were even some whose lips, and skin were cracked by extreme dehydration. Erin shuddered slightly, and looked away when he saw these last, disturbed on some fundamental level by the grotesqueness of the sight. Erin was momentarily grateful when he arrived at the gates of the town; that gratitude quickly squashed by the hostile bearing of the guards.
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“You want in, you pay the toll. One quinn for a day pass. Ten for an extended stay.” One of the guards said disinterestedly. It was at this moment that Erin realized he had no money. In fact, other than the clothes he was wearing, Almera hadn’t provided him with supplies of any kind.
“What do I do if I don’t have any money?” Erin asked hesitantly.
“Another beggar eh?” The guard snorted in disdain. “Well, you can always pay the toll in water. The extraction process is unpleasant, but it’ll get you an extended pass if there’s enough of it.”
“Er, extraction process?” Erin balked.
“First time? The water mages rip the water right out of your body. Not enough to kill you, but you’ll probably want to have a lie down somewhere after. Just don’t do it in the streets or you’ll be kicked out of the town.” The guard didn’t seem gleeful at the idea of his misery, merely disdainful, and disinterested.
Erin sighed in resignation. “Fine, I’ll do it.”
The guard nodded, and grabbed a cube with a button from his pocket. The guard pressed the button, and placed the cube back in his pocket.
“Alright, now wait here. The mage will be out in a minute. If you need to lie down after they’re done, do it outside the gates, and somewhere off the road.”
Erin nodded, and stood in awkward silence with the guards for the three minutes it took the water mage to arrive. The water mage was a wizened old man with a crude, knobbled cane, dressed in a thin green robe. It took Erin a moment to realize that the robe was green because it was made from cactus fibers.
“Another beggar?” The mage asked, cackling joyously.
The guard nodded. “Seems like a newbie. Go easy on him.”
The mage snorted, but didn’t otherwise reply; pulling out a small jug that was attached to his belt. “Hold still, this is going to hurt. A lot.” The mage said, cackling.
The mage was right. Erin lost track of how long he spent feeling as though every cell in his body was bursting. Despite knowing it was likely only a few seconds, Erin felt like hours had passed. Hours of tortured agony that left him weeping on the ground. When it finally ended, the pain vanished like a dream; leaving behind only a numb exhaustion.
“Hm, not bad. Nearly filled the whole jug. Definitely an extended pass for this one.” The mage cackled. With that, he walked away, back through the gate to the town.
The guard nodded, and disappeared into the town for a moment while his partner watched over Erin. Erin was still curled in a ball on the ground when the primary guard reemerged with a piece of green paper. Seeing him lying there, the guard kicked him in the stomach. Not hard enough to do any damage, but enough to cause pain. It woke Erin from the dream-like state he had been trapped in since his exsanguination.
“You wanna pass out, do it somewhere else. Now take this. It’s good for a month. If you scrounge up the money, you can renew it, or extend it at any guard post you see. Just don’t bother the patrol guards, they can’t help you.”
Erin nodded as he pushed himself to his feet with great difficulty. When he finally reached a fully upright position, his vision swam; causing him to miss the outstretched paper when he tried to grab it. The guard snorted derisively, but grabbed his arm; shoving the paper into it with his other hand.
“Now either get inside, or go pass out next to the wall over there.” The guard told Erin, pointing at a patch of wall twenty feet away. Erin nodded blearily, and stumbled to the suggested sleeping position. Reaching the patch of dry dirt, Erin fell over; losing consciousness within moments.